Husain Sumra

This is probably the quickest challenge i had ever completed. It was a boring rainy wednesday afternoon in Columbus until i saw the shooting challenge. So off i went to complete it. Grabbed my Nikon put the shutter speed to 1/1000 and set the aperture accordingly. Needed someone to drop the weight into the glass, so i asked my wife, who was laughing at me all through it :) It took me few times to get the right shot. But was not that tough.

Its my first entry to a shooting challenge, and I wanted to do something simple involving my personnal obsession, water. I started by dropping water from a bottle to a glass but that wasn't cool enought, so I added blue food coloring. Exposure correction in Photoshop.

This is my first photo contest I've participated in. I've seen lot's of them before, but this one seemed pretty simple and fun. So me and my brother went out to the river in our backyard and just dropped some rocks in the water and took pictures of it. As far as technique, I focused in on the water first, then my brother held the rock directly under the lens and dropped it while I took the picture. Pretty simple, really. Then I did a little editing in Apple's Aperture to add a little something to it.

Thank you so much!

- Daniel Mallek

Hey, here is my submission.

I live in New York, it's been raining all day today.
I stopped doing photography for several years but last week I decided to get it back and started doing this 365 project as many people have done, basically take at least one photograph a day.
so I went out this afternoon and took few shots in my backyard for the raindrops, attached is my personal favorite for the few shots I've taken but here is another one that's not bad -> http://www.flickr.com/photos/xunwang/5734928519/lightbox/

It is my "birthday", and I thought dancing candle flames might be nice at high speed. So when the cake was lit, instead of making a wish, and blowing out the candles, I started taking pictures. The candles very quickly started wilting, and melting together creating even bigger flames. I only had time to get off a few shots before I had to deal with the bonfire. (In the end I completely forgot to make a wish - what a waste of a year!)

- Jeremy Neiman

Water seemed to be a compelling subject to capture at high shutter speed. Given the picture on the contest announcement though, I wasn't going to head down to the beach. Then after coming back from the gardening store, this idea dawned on me. I used a remote and sprinkled water from up top. I had to experiment with different flowers. Some bounced too much. I had to keep opening the iris to get enough of the droplets in focus. The ones that are really out of focus look surreal. Shot with a Canon T2i, Focal length 50, ISO 500.

While on a train ride back from Mississippi after picking up my grandmother and spending a few days with my cousins, I admired the passing scenery as I made the journey from Hattisburg MS to Philadelphia PA. Along the way, many things caught my attention; the fact that graffiti is a constant presence around trains and rail roads in general, there is much more farmland in this country than I once thought, and the fact that a 30 hour Amtrak ride with a decently sized bedroom compartment is much more bearable and overall enjoyable than any plane ride I've ever taken. However, the one thing that stood out more than any other part of the trip was the wreckage I saw in Tuscaloosa, Alabama from the tornadoes that tore through there a few weeks past. As I am from New Jersey, I have never seen a Tornado or the damage that one can produce, however upon seeing this damage, I am much more aware how detrimental they can be. This shot was taken with my Ricoh Singlex TLS, using my f1.8 55mm lens. I had the lens at f 2.2, and about 1 full stop overexposed to get more definition inside the train car, and to enhance the blurry rose in the foreground, which I feel is symbolic of the lives recently lost. I've titled this image "Just Passing Through" because of the manner in which I came and passed the scene of destruction, the overall brevity of the situation, and because the tornado appeared and diminished in a way similar to myself.

I was in the back yard trying to get a good shot of my cousin jumping off of the roof. My yorkies were running around and decided to get a picture of them while waiting for my cousin to climb back up. This is Sebastian, he is 8 years old and much more photogenic than my cousin.

- Kelly Bisby

I title this picture "Tee'd Up". It was taken on a beautiful evening at an East Tennessee golf course. I sat the camera on the ground behind the ball and used a golf tee to support the lens and adjust the height (worked great). I set me NEX-3 to 1/1000th, auto ISO, and manual focus. I used the 10 second timer with 5 shot burst. I would like to say that I got this shot on my first attempt but the truth is I was on the 18th tee box and I had tried on every tee box prior. I touched up the picture in Picasa and resized in Photoshop. As for the golf shot, Duck Hook into someones yard.

- Kris Hall

My girlfriend gave me a flint fire starter for my birthday, it was the first thing i thought of when I saw this shooting challenge. We went to my dad's which has all black walls and tried to get some shots. Timing was tough, so we resorted to continuous shooting and hoping that amongst the many black frames one would show a spark. This was the best of them. Taken with a Canon EOS 450D, 50mm f/1.8 mkII lens, wide open, iso 100. We decided on the low iso as the actual subject was very bright and already over-exposing. The image was cropped and I enhanced the colour of the smoke in Aperture. Sparks were made by me, picture taken by Zosia Bredow.

- Adam Falk

Hi,

Taken with an old Canon S30, is a compact fluorescent lamp taken in autofocus at 50 ISO, 1/1000 speed and 8F.

- Erik

I finally decided to give the Shooting Challenge a try so I grabbed my camera, got our 6-month old English Mastiff all riled up, and started taking some shots. This was my favorite; it looks like her tongue is reaching all the way to her eye!
Canon 50D, EF 28-135mm lens, 50 mm focal length, 7.1 aperture, 2500 ISO

- Ryan Harrigill

Some Like It Hot

Last night I decided to take on the 1/1000 challenge.... First I thought of all the cool liquid things I could do or things in motion/dropping or what have you. Sports was out because I was home with my son in bed. I thought for a few moments and decided I wanted to do something different. I wanted to take a nice hot photo. I gathered some items and shot away... This is my favorite of the bunch. I don't think I could have captured anything hotter. The flames almost look like a smokin' hot babe. Well, maybe not smoking, but you get my drift. =)

*I didn't do any editing to this photo other than I cropped and resized it.*

=)

Nikon D90
18-105mm Nikkor lens
S-1/1000
ISO- 800
F- 4.8
42mm

- Ashley Chavez

The other day, I found myself being chased by a rabid Republican. With nowhere to turn, I decided to take shelter at the local skate park. Not one to be fooled, the 'publican was right on my tail, and getting closer. I ran around the skate park, imploring the skaters for help. As I turned a corner, circling behind the concrete quarter pipe, I tripped and began to fall. Not wanting to destroy my new camera, the Canon 60D, I grabbed it to protect it from its perilous journey into the ground.

That is all I can remember from the incident. After I regained consciousness, an onlooker explained to me what had happened, proof of which was caught by my camera in this photo.

As I was falling, one of the skateboarders, decided he had to do something. He had to help.
With great skill and dexterity, he charged the quarter pipe - fire in his eyes. Reaching the lip of the ramp, he popped an ollie, and aimed for the crazed beast, ready to pounce on my unconscious body. He flew through the air, aiming directly at the monsters head, prepared to fight.
When the skateboard made contact with the 'publicans thick skull, he was destroyed instantly, and mysteriously vanished.

This photo, which was taken accidentally, as I was falling, and the skateboarder attacking, is the only proof of this story.

I shot this picture at the Tour of AMGEN bicycle race during stage 5, about 1km from the finish line. I left a people-packed finish line for a more isolated spot along the race path to get a low angle street shot. In the picture are the riders in the lead pack. The eventual winner of stage 5 (Peter Sagan) is pictured center in the green jersey.

- Zac Mansfield

On this shot I was trying to best figure out how to do some inside shots at 1/1000. I was looking for a lot of light and realized our ceiling fan had 4 lightbulbs and was as bright as I'd be able to get. I wasn't planning on using this as my submission, but I thought it looked really cool so I stopped there. Oh, and my "tripod" was a bar stool that happened to be lying right under the ceiling fan when I was figuring all this out. I shot this photo on an Olympus E-510 with a 14-42mm zoom lens, ISO 1600, F4.0, 1/1000 sec, 14mm.

- Justin Lane

A crow in flight.

Shot Details:
Nikon D3000, 55mm, 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO-200

Cheers,

- Anup

Was out in the garden trying to get some macro shots of bugs and the like when I was ordered to do some watering.
So decided to combine the 2 tasks.
Hose pipe with thumb over the end in left hand, camera in the other.

I was checking our farm crops Friday and there are millions of bees in the turnip seed field. The turnip flowers smell sweeter than any rose and the bees are thriving in the 15 acres of yellow blossoms.

Even 1/1,000 doesn't capture the wings clearly - the bee's are moving constantly, chaotic while perversely methodical. They're fascinating to watch on a sunny spring day. And the one that flew into my hair was pretty patient in extricating himself with out any hard feelings.

- Jason Hunton

This was taken with my Sony HX5V at (obviously) 1/1000's of a second, ISO800, f5.0.
My idea sounded simple enough when I thought it out... however I quickly found that your arm gets quite tired shooting the ball with one hand and trying to take a picture with the other.... I then recruited the nearest family member to shoot some hoops for me. My brother, who would never turn down the opportunity to show off his basketball 'prowess' volunteered quite readily. He didn't realize how many time he'd be doing the same thing over and over again, but in the end I got what I wanted!

- Brian Coffman

I was trying home for lunch when I noticed this vulture just sitting on the gaurd rail looking at the road kill. I pulled over and took a few shots. It just stared t me for a few minutes then jumped down to start eating the squirrel. I wanted to get a different angle shot so I got out of my truck but that scared him off. As it flew away another vulture flew down from a tree behind me and buzzed me and my truck closer than 2 feet. It scared the crap out of me, those vultures have a 3 foot wing span easily. I went back and staked out the road kill with a better lens but they never came back or were watching me from a distance planning my demise. Next morning the squirrel was gone.

After two days of looking for the perfect picture with a friend of mine in Soest, the Netherlands, I went back to my hometown saturday night and my parents were sitting in the backyard near the brazier enjoying the heat. I made some pictures of the fire and went to bed. The next day I looked trough my pictures and decided to send this one in as my submission.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lennart94

Heard about the challenge this Thursday from a friend. It's more of a 'right
place at the right time' or a 'create your own and hope it comes out' type of
capture. Due to limited time, I couldn't just stand around waiting for an
amazing bird to fly by (I live in the city so I'd be lucky to capture a pigeon)
so I followed my father to the bowling alley (Saturday, May 21) to see pins fly
around instead. He's an awesome bowler and knew he wouldn't let me down with
the strikes.

My daughter encouraged me to try and enter this contest since she knows I love taking pictures. "We are pretty busy, " I told her, "plus, 1/1000 of a second is pretty quick. What is something you would like to see frozen in time in the shot?" Right away, she says my wife can throw water balloons at her while I take pictures. What a great sport! She enjoyed the few balloons thrown her way and even got to get the camera guy back with a couple to the head after we got this shot!

- Brian Knack

It was pushing 90F in Raleigh today when this idea popped in my head. I simply dropped an ice cube into a glass of water and snapped away. There was some trial and error involved before coming away with this shot. Canon T1i, EF 28-90 Lens, Aperture 1/1000 (obviously), f5.0, ISO 200.

- Matt Cockman

Photo was taken with a nikon D300 and a nikkor 75-150mm f3.5 lens. Photo shows a street performer at the East Lansing Arts Festival juggling a sword, a torch and a tomato which he took bites off while juggling. The speed of 1/1000 froze the bits of tomato falling from his mouth and hand.

- Miguel Villavicencio

This photograph was taken on May 20 2011 in Beaufort North, Carolina. This Flag was flying on the top of a maritime museum containing several artifacts associated with Blackbeard the Pirate. Blackbeard stayed at the Hammock House in the early 1700's. The Hammock House is the oldest building in Beaufort, and it is rumored that Blackbeard hung one of his wives from an oak tree on that property.

It was shot using a Panasonic Lumix-LX5 (Leica lens). ISO 400, f8, 1/1000. It was imported into and processed in Aperture 3. Additionally, B&W conversion, Film Grain simulation, and toning were done in Nik SilverEfex Pro.

To get this shot, I setup the camera, got it focused, and then held down the shutter release so it would rapidly fire, as I repeatedly lit the lighter. The most frustrating part of this shoot was that once I had a image I was happy with in the preview, I imported it, and discovered that I hadn't manually set the ISO, and it automatically went with 1600. The result of this was that I had a great thumbnail image, but at any high resolution it was filled with noise. Luckily, after setting everything up again, and *properly* setting up my camera this time, I ended up with an image that I think is even better.

- Cato Pedersen

Canon T2i with 70-300 lens.
F6.3 1/1000 ISO400

Usually you don't want to freeze motion of race cars because doing so makes them look static, lifeless and unexciting. In order to take a shot at 1/1000 and make it look exciting, I decided to find an area of the track where I could find these 2 million dollar machines braking hard enough to glow the rotors during daylight. These guys were also moving fast enough that the wheels weren't completely frozen in time giving a slight sense of motion. I shot the red, yellow and black Ferrari's this way and this blue colored one seemed to contrast the rotor glow the most.

(I still managed to fubar the shot slightly by bumping my ISO setting to 400 when I could have gotten away with ISO 100 and a using a larger aperture at 4.5 or 5. Luckily there wasn't any increase in perceptible noise. This shot was executed much better at 1/320th panning)

- Bobby Triantos

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: 50mm 1.8
ISO: 6400
NO Flash

Grab my 7D and attached my wide opening lens, and run to the toilet where there is a water spray, take a series of shot until I am contented with what I got.

Wanted to capture both a solid and a liquid shattering together. Taken on the top of my boyfriend's apartment complex parking garage.My boyfriend dropped the glass and shards came flying at me. Luckily, the camera got in the way!

- Lindsay Kuhlenberg

This was shot at the Cherry Creek National Hare & Hound Desert Race, May 21st. Sorry... NO Rapture.

Shot with a Nikon D3s, Nikon 70-200 2.8 lens.

Shutter speed set at 1/1000, F-stop at 8, ISO set to auto (metadate says it locked on this shot at 220)

Focus was set to constant track with 0 delay.

Sorry... I forgot the above info on the previous send.

- Brad Bradley

This buzzin' bee was taken in the large scale artwork "In Memory" by Nathan Coley which is situated at Jupiter Artland, an amazing contemporary sculpture part just outside of Edinburgh, Scotland (http://www.jupiterartland.org).

It is described by the artist as: "A simple enclosure formed by poured concrete surrounding a tended graveyard with headstones and planting... [it] takes the form of a small family graveyard, the kind to be found in the grounds of many a country house or estate." (http://www.jupiterartland.org/the_works/the_artists/nathan_coley). The irony of the bee making life in the middle of a situation so closely tied up to death creates an interesting tension.

Photo was shot using FujiFilm FinePix S5200 with and ISO setting of 200.

The photo is composed of my turtle, Bellini, peaking out from behind the flow of water into the tank from the filter. It took close to 100 shots to get him to line up properly so he wouldn't be totally obscured by the bubbles, or have the filter inlet showing behind him. While he has no problem coming up to the glass and following my across the room, or even my finger pressed up on the glass, he would not come near the camera. Which resulted in a lot of pictures of his tail. In order to better convey the 'under water' feel to the photo I took a bit of temperature away from the photo.

- Jeremy Curcio

Shot with 60D 24mm f/11 1/1000s iso200

Violet Charge

I sometimes wonder at what speed the fluorescent charge up in regard to the size. And this is perfect for this challenge. I set up the tripod to a four headed continuous light mount and mount four fluorescent with the same cool daylight color temperature but different in size. Surprisingly enough after hundreds of shots the biggest is consistently the first to charge and the last to discharge and all of them make beautiful violet and greenish color when they charge and discharge. Though I don't know the exact number but the violet charge is a lot less than the green one which I can only shot two great violet in all. And that is the best shot to represent the spiral 85w compared to 23w, 25w and spiral 25w.

- Zefanya Hanata

I took this picture at a school fundraiser. This is the school teacher getting soaked in the "Target Toss" while playing trombone.
Shot with a Cannon EOS 40D with a 75-300mm lens.

- Sarah Carruthers

Orioles on our feeder (grape jelly). This is the best shot I could get at 1/1000 in the time range of the contest. I had hoped to get the Orioles in flight, but it just didn't work out. Thanks for considering. -Brian Kelly

On vacation with my family in Kauai and getting everyone organized and out of the house before noon is simply an impossibility. Being that I'm ready to go by 9am and left waiting every morning, how do I escape frustration? With a damn fine garden surrounding me! Caught this little guy coming in for a landing.
D90 with a Sigma 150mm 2.8 macro. F/13, ISO 1000, 1/1000.

- John Petrick

After reading this weeks challenge I immediately knew I was going to shoot a hoverfly in flight or something to that effect since Macro is my passion. But late the other night and after a few cold beverages the paint splash came to me. I set up a ladder in the garage to hang my black back drop, used 4 shop lights, got an old Subwoofer and receiver and with a little help from Jack and Meg White I had some base to splatter paint up to my ceiling. After several attempts and clean ups I reviewed my photos and this one seemed to have the best focus and color. Several other shots can be found here http://www.flickr.com/photos/hooker771/ Shot with a Canon t2i with 100mm Macro 2.8 lens at f/4 and of course 1/1000. Even with the shop lights I had to bump the ISO to 800 to get the needed speed of 1/1000. I think this would work better with a flash and more DOF. My son, daughter, and myself tried to replicate this today outside using the sun instead of shop lights but I still couldn't get a better shot. But they had a "blast".

- Drew Eldridge

Hi,

it was a sunny day in Vienna (Austria) and my dog - Moni's her name - loves to "play" tennis and I love to play with my camera. So we put up a team and went out, testing some highspeed photography. At first I chased her around but the pictures lacked some power so I tried to just throw the ball straight up and took a photo of her trying to catch it midair. This may not be the best of all the photos we took but it is the one we love the most.

I used a NikonD300 with a Nikkor 18-200mm lense; ISO was at 2k; F-Stop at f/6.3; Exposure time ... well guess it :)

Went to Suffolk Downs in Boston to watch a few races and to put a few bucks down on Preakness. Long story short, I didn't hit a single horse on Preakness. I guess the passing of Macho Man Randy Savage wasn't a sign from the heavens to bet Mucho Macho Man. Anyway, I happened to have my D90 with me. It was a sunny day and I was kicking myself for not having a NDF or UV/haze filter. There was tons of light, but a weird gray haze coming from Logan's direction. I set full manual for 1/1000 and 200 ISO. Suffolk Downs has a double fence, so I had to really zoom in on the kit lens with a non-constant f-stop. I estimate I was at f/5.6 or whatever the f-stop is at full zoom (105mm). Not too sharp, but OK considering my non-pro lens, the distance, and the beers. Horses have weird ass muscles.

- Know 1

I set up the camera on a tripod with a remote, then shot the apple with my 308 while my brave friend sat as far away (~5ft) from the camera as the remote would allow. Obviously 1/1000, f6.3 and ISO 500 on a Nikon D300 w/16-85mm.

- Clark

Got this shot of a dog from the Purina Performance Dog Show in St. Louis' Forest Park this weekend. Surprisingly the dog had only been training with the group for three weeks. Some minor exposure and cropping done to the picture.

Canon T2i
w/28-135mm lens
1/1000 sec
f/6.3
ISO 200

- Chip Moll

Just Humming Along
While sitting on my deck eating breakfast, my wife pointed to the humming birds eating at the feeder that she put out. I thought that the 1/1000 challenge could be a good speed to capture the quick nature of a humming bird. I went and grabbed my camera, tripod and remote and setup my camera. After making a few adjustments, multiple birds, and over an hour waiting for the birds, I got this shot. I like that you can even see the eye of the humming bird focused on the flower. I took this with a Canon T1i, F/5.6 and of course exposure 1/1000.

- Joshua Dersch

Dear Gizmodo,

Check out my submission for the 1/1000 of a second shooting challenge! I loved the idea of this challenge and the first thing that popped into my mind (probably due to my love of (lol)cats) was to capture my cat while playing with her toy - a bunch of feathers attached to a an elastic cord and a stick (I guess it vaguely resembles some kind of animal?). She is absolutely obessed with this thing and has all these crazy moves to catch it. While throwing the toy at her I took the pictures with my other hand and this one really came out nice, her being suspended in mid-air, not having a clue where the toy actually went. I used a Canon 7D with a 24-70 2.8L lens (focal distance 24mm) at 1/1000 with f/2.8 and ISO at 2000.

- Colin

I was filming a wedding this past weekend, and figured I would haul along my trusty Olympus Pen to snap a few pictures for this weeks contest.
Right away I started looking for items to shoot, and was drawn to the water fountain. Set my Camera to 'S' and change the shutter to 1000.
Grabbed a couple of shots. Wham bam, thank you ma'am

Did some sharpening and other post work in Aperture 3.

Olympus E-PL1
ISO 1000
37mm
f/5.6
1/1000

- MM

Entry into 1/1000 of a Second Contest

Date Shot: 5/22/2011

Equipment:
Camera: Canon Rebel Xsi
Lens: Canon EF 50mm

Shot Settings:
Exposure: 1/1000 sec
ISO: 800
Aperture: f/3.2

I couldn't have picked a worse day to shoot this challenge. It was quite cloudy and, using only natural light, I almost couldn't shoot at 1/1000th of a second. I tried several objects (water, grains, etc.) before finally settling on this odd combination of thumbtacks and champagne flutes. Enjoy!

- Sheryl Delrosario

Hi... We were flying our RC Planes at low level, due to a heavy fog...

The " Ceiling " was around 50'...

I shot this picture of one of our more adventurous Pilots, as his P-51 passed close by and was pulling up and away...

It was shot with the Canon G-12 @ 1,000th sec. at f:4 and the ISO was set at 80. The Focal Length was 21mm.

It was a pretty dim day, so I didn't expect much and was pleasantly surprised with this Image.

- Charlie

figured it wouldn't be much of a problem capturing some decent surf shots at 1/1000 sec but the talent in the water wasn't all that great. noticed a brown pelican headed my way so started snapping off shots as it got closer and closer until it flew straight over my head.

not quite the shot I started out expecting to take but it's an unusual angle so I'm ok with it....

This is my first photo contest. I used a NikonD90 with a 18-200mm lens, using ISO 400 while shooting outside. I didn't alter the image at all after it was taken, it is straight from the camera. I decided to use my friend's dog, Misha as a subject and we tried a variety of shots of him jumping, running, but I liked the ones where she was throwing him right at the camera the best. In the shot, you can see her in the background after the throw and the subject looking at his eventual landing place. He was a good sport about it and got many treats in return.

Cheers,

- Green Kitkat

First try at the Shooting Challenge. I shot this during a local disc golf tournament with a Nikon D7000 on Shutter Priority. ISO 500.

- Matthew Osborne

Well, the photo was taken on a school party, for the end of the school year. There is not much to tell really, I was just taking photos of the performance, with my camera (Canon eos 400D) with usual lens (50mm f1.8) and settings (raw, f1.8, 1600iso). I was also one of the DJ-s during the intervals, so I had a chance to take photos from the stage and right under it (hurey :D!). By chance, one of them was taken in shutter speed 1/1000s, not the best one by far, but the focus is quite right and therefore I consider the photo as succesful (it's not that easy to catch perfect focus under such light conditions). I never took part in Gizmodo shooting challenge, and I remembered that it was "1/1000 of a Second challenge" this week, so I decided to give it a try.

I like that this challenge took full advantage of my new 50 mm lens. With a nice wide aperture, it could capture the organic and almost molten quality of the water. I turned on a water hose and then played with it in front of the lens. I tried shooting it as it splashed in the pool but I found this image of the flow of water hitting the trunk of the palo verde tree to be particular striking.

I was just watering the garden with the sprinkler and my dog Max went nuts trying to eat the water while my nephew chased him and played along. Max has done this before but never before with such vigor. They went at it for about 20 minutes, so I grabbed the camera and started shooting. This one was one of my favorites at 1/000, that showcases Max's chompers.

Check out the rest at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kylebenson/

- Kyle Benson

An obligatory dog going after ball shot. At this speed, most images had an unpleasing motion blur but this one, with low sunlight in Charlie's eye and a trail of earth following him as he moves sideways stood out. Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM. ISO 100, 200mm, f/4, 1/1000s, stabilization on.

- Rick Bollar

Water balloon and a pin.
Canon 7D with 100mm macro lens.
f/2.8, ISO-400.

- David Lee

I took this series of shots on the day that the challenge was announced.
My boys had been throwing baseballs at a target in our yard so I thought I'd
try to capture the ball as it was hurling towards the target. I took a few
shots and was surprised at how often I could get the ball in decent focus
but my real problem was light. It was near sundown so I decided that we
would try it again another day. Well, that day just never presented itself
so here is one of the shots from day one.
Lumix GH2 with Nikon 50mm/f1.4/1000

- Tim Hammer

"I'm THIRSTY!"

This shot came by happen chance. Initially my goal was to catch my dog digging in the sand since he's a big digger, however none of those shots I got came out the way I wanted them too. So while he was drinking water, I snapped this w/out even looking through view finder to catch this left over water he didn't swallow just drooling off his tongue.

Used my Canon 550D (kit lens) in Shutter priority mode @ 1/1000 (f/3.5 & ISO 100)edited with iPhoto, I was able to give it - what I thought - unique look. Basically iPhoto has "avoid saturating the skin tones" check box and then i turned the saturation ALL the way down (which normally makes the pic black/white, in this case it's like… a faded color or something).

Story:
There's something about catching water frozen in a moment that's beautifully haunting. Maybe it's because we never see experience it that way in our daily lives. In college I worked at a Starbucks, and was diligent about always pouring hot liquids carefully. There was something liberating about filling a glass without worrying about if it was going to spill.